Gourmet Fest Carmel 2017

Selectively seductive with the selection of new chefs and their creations of a Earth & Sea focus presenting a rich flavored but specifically delicate palette for this year's Relais & Chateaux Gourmet Fest 2017

Enjoy the visual feast

Bon appetite  

Chef Nathan Rich and his Vermont maple syrup braised port belly with black garlic, honey dijon scallion & toasted sesame 

Chef Justin Cogley of L'Auberge in Carmel-by-the-Sea is known for his creative dishes

Cogley's newest creation from Chantrelle Mushrooms & Umani (I believe locally sourced since this has been a landmark year of mushrooms on the Monterey Peninsula) Very earthy with an amazing sauce that was blended with greens 

Chef Tony Baker of Montrio in downtown Monterey and Baker's Bacon 

Chef Shinichiro Takagi of Zeniya with his beautifully simplistic dish of Sake Steamed Abalone with Sansho pepper 

Oyster smoked seaweed gelee & aomori from Hotel Wailea and Chris Kajioka was a special treat of another multi-layered dish of flavors of Hawaii with his smoke flavored oyster creamy and delicately sweet and just a touch of the sea for that salty finish.   Aloha spirited cooking guys, you rock

My favorite place for comfort cheese just like Wallace & Gromet, I love my CHEESE

Valrhona Chocolate mousse and nibs of coco and cream balls were really needed after all these delicate exotic flavors of the sea 

Chef Boulud of Restaurant Daniel in NYC really shined with the evening glow of the night and his majestic Pate' en croute shown in it's mosaic of plated perfection with a smoothness I haven't tasted since being in Paris in 1991!  It made me want to speak my bad French but it brought me such memories and pallatable pleasure of the flavors of France that I now regret not having a second.  Chef is a true French master of cuisine - A Picasso of Pate 

Boulud's Pate' en croute belongs in the Louvre next to Rembrandt and Monet

The Chef's choice of pickle flowers to both accent and consume as part of the edible feast it truly was!

Chef Gabriel Kreuther carving his Long Island Crescent Duck break with black trumpet marmalade fleischnacke & banyuls jus

Per Hallandback and Falsely Kro's Spot Praws with salad of baked fennel and spicy sauce with pimet which I must admit I have no idea of what this is made of except it was the crispy cracker-like ingredient that added just the right compliment to the delicately rich prawn paired with the grilled fennel flavoring it with that multi-layered flavoring that is so rare to find in a single dish like this.  This dish ties with Boulud's Pate for this year's event and I did have two of these so I'm sure how really good it was.  Congrats to Chef for creating a true masterpiece of many flavors .... and there should be a word for that !

The Premium Sake was excellent choice for the raw seafood bar area of the Gourmet Fest.  Fresh oysters and sake with a caviar chaser

 John Burkhard of Hog Island Oysters was shucking non-stop with his neighbor Black River Caviar sharing the seafood celebration of some of the best out of our West Coast ocean.